The Bishnoi Panth (the Vishnoi sampradaya)

What the Bishnoi panth is

J. Wilson’s Sirsa Settlement Report (1883), quoted by Rose (1911) and Crooke (1896), says that the name “Bishnoi” is linked with Vishnu, the deity the Bishnois place highest in their creed, though the Bishnois themselves sometimes derive it from the twenty-nine (bis-nau) rules given by their founder. Pareek also gives both reasons, and adds that some take it from “Vishnu-snehi”, one who loves Vishnu. According to the report the Bishnois also call themselves Prahladpanthis, because by tradition Vishnu was born as Jambhoji to keep a promise made to his devotee Prahlad.

According to Maheshwari (1970) the Bishnois have taken the beliefs of the panth as a way of life. Pareek writes that Jambhoji’s panth was not only for ascetics: its foundation was the householder, and his disciples included both householders and renunciants. According to Maheshwari the community has both householders and sadhus; at its rites the kalash is set up and the havan performed by the thapans, and the gayanas sing the hymns. By his time Bishnois were settled in the Bikaner, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer country of Rajasthan, in Hisar and Firozpur, in Moradabad and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and in Madhya Pradesh.

Guru Jambheshwar (Jambhoji)

According to Pareek, Jambhoji was born at midnight on Monday, Bhadrapada Krishna Ashtami of VS 1508; the panth’s poet Sahabramji in the “Jambhsar” and the other sakhi poets give the same date. His father was Lohatji and his mother Hansa (Kesar). Acharya Parashuram Chaturvedi, in his preface to Maheshwari’s work, writes that by tradition he spoke very little as a child, began herding cattle after the age of seven, and never married, keeping celibacy all his life; according to Chaturvedi, after the death of his father in VS 1540, and then of his mother, he gave up his house and property and went to live at Samrathal. According to Pareek he left home for good at the age of thirty-four and took his seat on the Samrathal dune, about four kos north of Pipasar, where he began to teach.

There, on Kartika Krishna Ashtami of VS 1542 (1485 CE), he founded the panth. A severe famine struck the region that year, and Chaturvedi, Pareek and Wilson’s report all write that Jambhoji helped the famine-stricken and that many became his followers at this time. He taught among the people and answered their doubts; this teaching is collected as “sabads” in the Sabadvani. According to Pareek he travelled widely, and according to Maheshwari the rulers of Jodhpur, Bikaner, Jaisalmer and Mewar also came into contact with him.

Chaturvedi writes that by tradition Jambhoji met Gorakhnath at about the age of 16; he finds this hard to accept as a historical fact and reads it as a sign of the influence of the Nath panth on the saints of Rajasthan at that time. Pareek also writes that the words “Gorakh, the boundless guru” in Jambhoji’s sayings do not show that Gorakhnath was his guru, and that history does not show the two to have lived at the same time. Maheshwari compares the Sabadvani with the sayings of the Nath siddhas.

Jambhoji died on Margashirsha Krishna Navami of VS 1593 (1536 CE). According to Pareek his followers wished to lay him to rest at Jambholav, but on Margashirsha Krishna Ekadashi he was given samadhi near the village of Talwa, close to Samrathal; being Jambhoji’s last halt (“mukam”), the place came to be called Mukam. Maheshwari says the same. The “Jambheshwariya samvat” used in the panth is counted from this date.

The 29 Bishnoi rules

According to Pareek, Jambhoji’s followers set twenty-nine religious rules in order on the basis of his sayings. The rules are sung in a short verse called “the akhadi of the twenty-nine dharmas” (“akhadi” means a pledge), which begins “tis din sutak, panch rituvanti nyaro”; Pareek writes that the verse is found in almost every book of the Bishnoi panth, and Maheshwari also found it in a manuscript of about VS 1850. Chaturvedi points out that the 29 rules are not listed together anywhere in Jambhoji’s own surviving works, though each of them occurs somewhere in his sayings.

The rules below are in the order Pareek (2001) gives them; according to him this is the order current and accepted in the Bishnoi community today. The wording is our own. Where other books count differently, and where an older text recorded in 1883 differs, is set out below under “Where the sources differ”.

1. Keep thirty days of sutak (ritual impurity) after a birth.

2. Keep a woman apart from household work for the five days of her period.

3. Bathe every morning.

4. Keep good conduct (shil), contentment and purity, inner and outer.

5. Do sandhya worship twice a day, morning and evening.

6. Do aarti in the evening and sing the praises of God.

7. Perform havan (homa) with love and devotion; in Pareek’s list, in the morning.

8. Strain water and milk and look over fuel before use, so that no small creature dies.

9. Speak with thought, and speak cleanly.

10. Be forgiving, that is, patient.

11. Be kind, and live humbly.

12. Do not steal.

13. Do not speak ill of anyone.

14. Do not lie.

15. Do not argue or quarrel.

16. Fast on Amavasya.

17. Sing the praise of Vishnu.

18. Be compassionate to all living beings.

19. Do not cut green trees.

20. Master lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride (“ajar ko jarna”).

21. Cook your own food with your own hands.

22. “Thaat amar rakhna”: do not give domestic animals, such as goats, to be slaughtered; keep them alive.

23. Do not have bullocks castrated.

24. Do not take opium (amal).

25. Do not chew or smoke tobacco.

26. Do not take bhang.

27. Do not drink alcohol.

28. Do not eat meat.

29. Do not wear blue clothes.

Trees and animals, and Khejarli in 1730

The protection of living beings has long marked the Bishnois. Wilson’s report of 1883 writes that Bishnois kill no living creature themselves and do their utmost to stop others from doing so, that antelope roam in numbers round their villages, and that they count it a good deed to scatter grain for pigeons and other birds. According to Pareek the khejri tree is held in the panth to be “the tulsi of the Kali yuga”.

The best-known event took place at Khejarli, a village near Jodhpur. According to Pareek, on Tuesday, Bhadrapada Shukla Dashami of VS 1787 (1730 CE), the Bishnois at Khejarli opposed the felling of khejri trees by servants of the state, and 363 people gave their lives. Maheshwari describes the event from the poet Gokalji’s “Sakhi of Khejarli”, which he takes for an eyewitness account: in the reign of Maharaja Abhay Singh of Jodhpur an officer of the state, Bhandari Girdhardas, wanted the Khejarli trees cut for money; the Bishnois resolved to give their heads rather than the trees; the Maharaja inquired and ruled the felling improper, but the officer defied the order and had the cutting begun; Bishnois gathered from many villages, and one after another 363 men and women gave their lives. The two sources agree on the date, the place and the number 363.

Writing today names Amrita Devi Bishnoi as the leader of the sacrifice, who gave her life with her daughters, holding on to the trees (Sohel and Naz, 2024). The Ministry of Environment and Forests of the Government of India has given an “Amrita Devi Bishnoi Wildlife Protection Award” in her name, for rural people and bodies who show courage in protecting wildlife. Khejarli was not the only such event: Pareek mentions Karma and Gaura of the village of Revasdi, who gave their lives for their dharma in VS 1661 (1604 CE), and according to Maheshwari a sakhi of the poet Vilhoji (VS 1589–1673) tells of the Bishnois of Tilasani village, who gave their lives to stop the felling of khejri trees.

Beliefs and customs

Havan is the panth’s main worship. According to Maheshwari a shared havan is held in the village on every Amavasya, people usually fast, and no trade or farm work is done that day; the flame of the havan is held to be the darshan of Jambhoji. Wilson’s report also says that the day before the new moon is kept as a day of fasting and rest, and that those who cannot perform havan daily meet to perform it on the Amavasya. After a birth thirty days of sutak are kept; according to Maheshwari, on the 31st day a havan is performed, the child’s head is shaved and the child is given pahal. Wilson’s report describes the initiation: after the havan the sadhu takes water in a new earthen pot and recites a mantra over it, and with the consent of those present this pahal is poured three times into the cupped hands of the one being initiated.

For the Bishnois Holi is not a festival but a day of remembering Prahlad’s suffering. According to Maheshwari, after sunset that day a state of sutak is observed; the next day the story of Prahlad’s escape is read, a havan is performed, pahal is taken, and no colours are played. Wilson’s report also describes the story of Prahlad, a fast, a havan and the giving out of gur. Maheshwari and Wilson both write that in the Bishnoi tradition the dead are buried rather than cremated; Maheshwari adds that among the Bishnois of Uttar Pradesh cremation is also the custom.

Main places

Mukam (Bikaner district) has the temple built over Jambhoji’s samadhi; according to Pareek it was completed in VS 1600 (1543 CE). According to Pareek two large fairs are held there every year, on the Amavasya of Phalguna and of Ashvina, with a great havan; Wilson’s report also mentions the fairs of Asoj and Phagan, when pilgrims go up the Samrathal dune to perform havan and scatter grain for the peacocks and pigeons. According to the report the assembled Bishnois fixed fines at these fairs for wrongs such as killing an animal or letting one be killed when it could have been prevented, and the fines went to the temple and the animals kept there.

The Samrathal dhora is a high sand dune about four kos north of Pipasar, where Jambhoji lived and where the panth began; Pareek calls it the panth’s “first seat”. Pipasar (Nagaur district) is his birthplace. According to Pareek the tank of Jambholav (Jambhsar), eight kos from Phalodi in the Jodhpur country and completed in VS 1566, was as dear to Jambhoji as Samrathal, and the panth holds it as holy as the Ganga and the other tirthas. According to Pareek, Lalasar, about 25 kilometres north of Mukam, is where by tradition Jambhoji left his body, and so it is held to be one of the main satharis (holy places).

Where the sources differ

• Jambhoji’s dates: Pareek, Maheshwari and Chaturvedi all give his birth as VS 1508, the founding of the panth as VS 1542 and his death as VS 1593, that is 1451, 1485 and 1536 CE; Wilson’s report of 1883 also gives 1451 for his birth and 1485 for the famine. The weekday of the founding differs: Pareek quotes a line of the Jambhsar giving Tuesday and another couplet giving Monday.
• When he went to Samrathal: according to Chaturvedi after his parents died in VS 1540; according to Pareek at the age of thirty-four, on a day of the dark fortnight of Jyeshtha in VS 1542, following Sahabramji’s Jambhsar.
• Place of death: according to Pareek, Jambhoji passed away at Lalasar, and this is the more common belief in the sampradaya; Maheshwari writes that the early poets and Vilhoji’s works support Samrathal, so he thinks Samrathal more likely.
• Counting and order of the rules: in Pareek’s list shil, contentment and purity make one rule (4), and straining water, milk and fuel is the eighth; Maheshwari calls this same rule the tenth, so in his count some of the earlier rules are counted separately. The numbers Pareek himself places on the verse also count differently from his list. The substance of the rules is the same, but the way they are divided into twenty-nine changes from book to book.
• The 1883 text: Wilson’s report gives an older and somewhat different text of the verse in Roman script. Its translation has “do not plough with bullocks” where Pareek’s text has “bail badhiya na karave”, do not have bullocks castrated; it renders “thaat amar rakhna” as not selling goats to be killed; and its last rule is to give children pahal to make them Bishnois. The same report notes that even then not every rule was kept strictly, for example the use of bullocks in farming.
• The name “Bishnoi”: Wilson’s report links it with Vishnu and gives the twenty-and-nine explanation as the Bishnois’ own; Pareek gives both reasons together.
• On whose word the Khejarli trees were cut: in Gokalji’s account as Maheshwari gives it, the officer Bhandari Girdhardas had the trees felled against the Maharaja’s ruling; many present-day accounts, such as Sohel and Naz (2024), write that Maharaja Abhay Singh wanted timber for a new palace and afterwards issued a copper-plate order forbidding the felling of trees and the killing of animals in Bishnoi villages. Maheshwari’s summary does not name Amrita Devi.
• The CE date of Khejarli: many present-day accounts give 11 September 1730. In our own panchang calculation that date does not match Bhadrapada Shukla Dashami of VS 1787, so only the Vikram Samvat date and the year 1730 are given here.

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